Page 73 of Tito

“Tommaso and his wife seemed scared of Uncle Stephano,” I explained.

“Scared?” Valencia scoffed. “Try frightened out of their freakin’ minds.”

I nodded. “Yeah, they looked really spooked. They wanted to visit Mama then when we told them she lives here with Stephano, they freaked out and ended the Zoom. And I don’t get that, I mean they know he’s her brother.”

“Man, it’s all in the history,” Rocky replied. “You need to ask Uncle Stephano.” He shrugged. “He will tell you…” He paused. “Unless…”

I stared at him. “Unless what?”

“Unless it’s a secret.” Rocky laughed.

I rolled my eyes and grabbed Valencia’s hand. “Okwiseguywhatever. It’s time to get going. Well, we're not going out anywhere. I cannot wait for this lockdown crap to be over with.”

“Yeah, maybe lockdown will be lifted soon?” Rocky suggested.

I paused and turned to look at him. “What makes you say that? And don't give me the secret crap again.”

He raised his hands at me. “Maybe you need to ask Uncle Stephano about it.”

Valencia gasped. “Deacon?”

He slowly shook his head.

“He’s not gonna say,” I told her, knowing my brother only too well.

A knock on the window startled us.

Rocky tapped a button and the window went down next to me.

Oscar leaned in.” You guy never called me.”

We stared at him.

Oscar had been our driver for five years and he was brave, educated and loyal. He’d taken bullets for this family.

“We aren’t going anywhere, Oscar. It was a meeting.

The driver gasped and yanked his head back. “I’m so sorry!” He raised his hands up at us.

“That’s ok,” Rocky replied. “It’s not like we do this a lot.”

Oscar gave him a nod then turned and rushed away.

Valencia snickered. “Well damn, he’s a shy one. Isn’t he?”

“Yeah, but in a car chase or an attack on the limo,” I told her. “You want him to be driving.”

Rocky nodded. “Like when we were escorting Legend and Glory from Texas. Oscar stayed calm and cool and kept that limo on the road, no matter what those guys tried to pull.”

“Of course, Glory made us look bad,” I grumbled.

“What?” Valencia asked.

“Nah, it wasn’t like that,” Rocky disagreed.

“She blew out that truck’s tires and it wrecked. Then she took shots at the rest of the attackers and they crashed as well.”

….So I told Valencia the story of what happened.